Ι never imagined that a simple portrayal of a Chinese farmer's everyday life could be so riveting. Pearl Buck's writing is magical, hypnotic, utterly engrossing. I virtually devoured the book in two days. Amazingly enough, I, who live worlds (and ages) apart from the book's setting, could totally relate to this story about the cyclical nature of life, the passions and desires that motivate a human being, pain, suffering, ambition, agony, pride and all sorts of human emotions.
It's the third book that I read this year, while thinking that I shouldn't have waited so long to give it a chance.

“The sun beat down upon them, for it was early summer, and [O-Lan’s] face was dripping with her sweat. Wang Lung had his coat off and his back bare, but she worked with her thin garment covering her shoulders and it grew wet and clung to her like skin. Moving together in a perfect rhythm, without a word, hour after hour, he fell into a union with her which took the pain from his labor. He had no articulate thought of anything; there was only this perfect sympathy of movement, of turning over this earth of theirs over and over to the sun, this earth which formed their home and fed their bodes and made their gods. The earth lay rich and dark, and fell apart lightly under the points of their hoes. Sometimes they turned up a bit of brick, a splinter of wood. It was nothing. Some time, in some age, bodies of men and women had been buried there, houses had stood there, had fallen, and gone back into earth. So would also their house, some time, return into the earth, their bodies also. Each had his turn at this earth…”
-tPearl S. Buck, The Good Earth

The Good Earth is a remarkable, entertaining, moving, and unforgettable novel. It held me – from the first page to the last – in its lyrical grasp.

With that said, let me hasten to add that I did not find it remarkable, entertaining, moving, and unforgettable for the same reasons it has been turning up in English classes since its 1931 publication date.

Pearl S. Buck’s classic tale of a Chinese peasant family has been a fixture on syllabuses for decades. It has been used – with the best of intentions, I think – as an introduction to a culture unfamiliar to many Americans, both then and now. The trouble, of course, is that basing your knowledge about a massive country with a history that stretches back over thousands of years is ludicrous, to say the least.

The Good Earth is about a specific spot in China, centered on a single family, and set at a specific (though non-specified) time. It is fiction, and not even historical fiction. The setting is so enveloping, so fully-realized, that it is seductive to say This is China! But it’s not. The Good Earth is no more representative of China than, for instance, Gone With the Wind is representative of the United States.

Thankfully, I never read this in school, meaning I was never subjected to the forced extrapolations that students are required to draw from a novel of this sort. Instead, I read it as a follow-up to Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s The Mountains Sing, a saga about a North Vietnamese family living through Vietnam’s tumultuous 20th Century. I had no real notion of what I was getting into with The Good Earth. I only knew that I wanted to travel somewhere I hadn’t been, and spend some time with people I hadn’t met.

To that end, the striking thing about The Good Earth is how universal a story it tells. This is the quintessential rags-to-riches epic. The central character, Wang Lung, may be Chinese, but he could just as easily be Ragged Dick from a Horatio Alger story. He is a striver, an ambitious farmer who loves the earth, is willing to work hard, and holds a considerable grudge against the House of Hwang, a wealthy family that slights him in a way that he never forgets.

Because this is a story about a man trying to jump into a higher income tax bracket, it follows a familiar arc from humble goodness to raging assholery to potential redemption. Call me crazy (or drunk), but the comparison that jumped into my head was Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, except that famine replaces murder (which, yes, is an important distinction).

When The Good Earth opens, we are introduced to Wang Lung, who lives with his elderly father, eking a living from the earth. It is his wedding day, which for Wang Lung, means going to the House of Hwang to pick up the wife – or “slave” – he has purchased. The woman, whose name is O-Lan, becomes the essential element in Wang Lung’s plan for upward economic mobility.

The Good Earth is written in the third-person, though we are privy to Wang Lung’s thoughts and feelings alone. It is a testament to his complexity that he is allowed to be a jackass, and often.

With the exception of Wang Lung and O-Lan, none of the other supporting characters have much psychological depth or dimension. They lack interior lives. Nonetheless, they are unforgettable, especially the villainous ones. Everyone leaves a mark in your memory.

The Good Earth is a bildungsroman that follows Wang Lung from relative youth, onward through his years. There is not a central plot. Rather, events unfold episodically, over the course of days and months and years. Some incidents are small, some are large, some are absolutely unforgettable. The most memorable set-piece in The Good Earth is a terrible famine that comes on the heels of a punishing drought. Now, most of us have read about famines in history books, whether that is the Ukrainian famine caused by Stalin’s collectivization schemes, the Bengal famine during World War II, or the Great Chinese Famine during the time of Mao. It is one thing to know the overwhelming statistics from those tragedies. It is another thing to have the process recounted in unsparing detail, as Buck does here.

I found The Good Earth to be beautifully written. Buck creates a distinct idiom for the narrative – especially with regard to the dialogue – that is mesmerizing. The verisimilitude here is not the point, as I suspect that repeated phrases such as “such an one” and “hither and dither” may not be perfect recreations of the way that actual Chinese farmers spoke. Yet I appreciated the stylization, and the fact that it was applied consistently. It created a fully-formed world, even if that world should not be accepted as historical fact.

This is a natural place to pivot to the reality that it is not the 1930s anymore.

It just so happened that I read this as a debate about cultural appropriation in literature arose in the wake of Jeanine Cummins’s American Dirt (which followed on the heels of a debate being had in the community of romance writers). Because this discussion – to the extent that trading death threats can be called a discussion – is being had, I feel compelled to state the obvious: Pearl S. Buck was not Chinese.

The daughter of American missionaries, Buck spent the bulk of her life living in China, where she learned the language, made friends, and seemed to genuinely care about the country and her people. To be sure, Buck was not a cultural tourist. Equally true is the fact that she was not Chinese.

I have nothing to add, except to say there is no law – at least in America – keeping an author from writing about whatever he/she/they wants. There is also no law – at least in America – keeping an author’s critics from voicing disapproval and leaving no-read-one-star ratings of the book. If this sounds like a weaselly position to take, well, there is no law – at least in America – against being a weasel.

Worth noting, I suppose, is that unlike James Clavell (Shogun) and Michael Blake (Dances With Wolves), among others, Buck does not tell this story through the eyes of a western intermediary. Westerners are almost completely nonexistent, showing up only on the fringes of a trip to the city, where they are cluelessly-confident bunglers. There is also none of the racial condescension that tends to show up in China-based novels written by non-Chinese authors. Wang Lung is not a stereotyped unskilled laborer, speaking pidgin English and kowtowing to foreign overlords. (I’m thinking, for instance, of The Sand Pebbles, which I otherwise enjoyed, but which employs its Chinese characters as “coolies”).

Since we are dancing around emotionally fraught topics, I should also add that the treatment of women in The Good Earth is deplorable. Low-born girls are sold as slaves or into arranged marriages, while high-born girls have their feet bound and are groomed for refined coquetry. The female role is rather sharply defined as either sexual object or domestic help.

This, it should go without saying, is not a moral worldview that Buck is promoting, but a rendition of things as she saw them. Since there is a long, problematic history of Chinese portrayals (or caricatures) in western culture, this can be troubling. There is always the inherent danger of promoting unfair or inaccurate stereotypes. At the same time, there is no denying that Buck wrote about what she witnessed, and that in a patriarchal milieu such as Wang Lung’s, the general subordination of women was commonplace. Not just in China, obviously, but all over the world.

On the plus side, O-Lan is – in my opinion – the real hero of The Good Earth. She is described as homely and slow-witted, with her chief virtue being her doggedness. At least, that is how she is seen by Wang Lung. Anyone paying the slightest attention, however, will soon learn that she is indomitable, hickory-tough, and twice as clever as Wang Lung on his best day.

Many great novels are described as timeless. They work wherever and whenever you read them. The Good Earth is certainly a classic, but it is not timeless. It is of its time, and the way we view it will continue to vary and change. There are aspects of The Good Earth that will make it a nonstarter for many readers. For all that makes it discomfiting, or potentially discomfiting, I loved it.

Stripped of its trappings, The Good Earth is a moving and humane portrayal of one family’s journey. It is not always happy, and the ending is surprisingly dark. There are elements of King Lear and Anna Karenina, among other influences. But make no mistake, the intimacy, the empathy, and the unforgettable characters are all Pearl S. Buck.

G9 LL
The Good Earth is an award-winning novel written by Pearl S. Buck. The novel follows the life of Wang Lung, a poor farmer in China who gradually, through both hard work and unexpected fortune, acquires more land and money than he had ever dreamed of owning. During a time, Wang Lung gets caught up in his fortune and his trappings of wealth (wearing lavish silk robes and having a concubine), he eventually grows to re-appreciate the simple life of a hard-working farmer. I happily fell into Pearl S. Buck’s clear, brisk prose and the story of Wang Lung the rags-to-riches farmer.
The novel also touched many old Chinese cultures such as foot binding, concubine, opium smoking, female infanticide, etc. Although I liked this book for its verisimilitude to the events that actually happened, The Good Earth's literary qualities are not that impressive. With the use of emotion and diction, book conveyed mood and tone very well. In a straightforward but highly detailed manner, Buck has composed a classic account of rural Chinese life. It's a pretty good read!

This is almost spiritual in it's beauty and simplicity.

First published by Pearl Buck in 1931, this later won the Pulitzer Prize and had a significant affect on Buck’s winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938.

The author displayed her genius ability to observe and relate the cultural and day-to-day lives of Chinese peasants at the turn of the century. This American Christian missionary told the story of a rural Chinese man and perceptively embraced vast cultural differences, while at the same time telling a story that is universal in its relevance.

A wonderful book, should be on a short list of books that should be read in a lifetime.

It's not easy to explain how someone feels when they read a book that feels like it's a part of them, as if it will weave itself into the fabric of a soul and walk with someone through their life.

I save 5 stars for books that move me this deeply. Perhaps that's a bit unfair to all the other awesome books out there that might deserve it, but oh well. That's what 4 star ratings are for; besides, there has to be a way to acknowledge a book that is an all-time favorite and give it the respect it deserves for being so special.

Oh, if only all writers could write as well as Pearl S. Buck! Whether you love or hate this novel (some people feel very strongly about it either way), you can't deny that the author has major talent.

She writes with such descriptive fluidity, and maintains a current of understated humility, where she doesn't let herself get in the way of the story. I'm sorry, but too many people try to show off their skills and it's distracting. Just give us the story already, and let us see for ourselves.

No doubt you already know what this amazing book is about, so there's no need to rehash it since it's been said on here a thousand times. I just wanted to use this review to say how much I love her writing ability, and can't wait to read the other 2 books in the trilogy.

Probably a 3.5 stars for me but I rounded it down because I thought the plot was predictable and this is one of the few books I believe that could have used a bit more detail. It is a good book, and one that was probably ground-breaking when written, about the life of Wang Lung and his wife O-Lan who were poor peasant farmers who made a living on their land, and who eventually through hard work and luck, were able to purchase greater amounts to land. In the story we are introduced to Wang's elderly father as well as his uncles family. Children are born, droughts and floods occur, there is starvation and begging and we see a lot of people leeching off of Wang Lung. He is a proud man who has a good sized ego and when he lets his ego and desires get in the way of his love of the land and farming the issues crop up. There are not a lot of decent characters in the book, and Wang's family is consumed with status and also despise each other. Glad I read the book, and it should produce a lively discussion at book club.

I really, really wish I hadn't google-searched 'foot binding' after reading this book.

In the tradition of a beloved college professor, I give The Good Earth a subtitle which reveals more of the moral stuff which fills it. Ahem. :
The Good Earth: Mo' Money, Mo' Problems.

The Good Earth is packed with cautionary tales of wealth and idleness, tradition and progression, and lust. Wow, the character studies one could do in this book! Just things I noticed:

- The very thing Wang Lung detested, O-lan's unbound feet, actually helped him produce his wealth because she could help him with the land, and do all of the labor in the house. Women with bound feet could move very little because it was excruciating to walk.

- With wealth came idleness and a detachment from the land. The antagonists of the story in the end were Wang Lung's own rich, idle sons. There was very rarely ever 'peace' in Wang Lung's house from the time he became rich to the end of the book. And in the times of peace, we see that Wang Lung blatantly ignored the problems and troubles in his house. Ignorance is bliss when you live with the likes of Lotus. Can I get a holla-back? ;)

This is one hell of a classic. I kept thinking of The Grapes of Wrath during the first half of this read this and kept wondering at it. Poverty, want, great toil, and then even more want filled these pages. The Good Earth came out 8 years before Steinbeck's masterpiece and yet my biggest wonder is why the Good Earth isn't better known, more well known, than Steinbeck.

Is it because it happens to Chinese characters rather than Okies from Oklahoma?

Let's let that question pass on by for a moment because this book deserves to stand on its own worth. The Earth is indeed the source of all wealth... but definitely not all sorrow. Some, sure, but most of the sorrow in these pages are created by those who do not understand or work the land. This is an important point. As important as that in Candide, but more poignant, emotional, and effective in this novel.

High praise? I think so. And well deserved.

I will like classics of all types for many different reasons, but some are much more impactful to me than others.

This one has that punch. Glorious, wonderful, sad, and so cruel. Life, with tragedy and small bits of joy here and there... but what an epic! This ought to be on the required reading lists except for one small point... it should be enjoyed and cherished without coercion. :)

I’m pleased I’ve read this book, mostly because it’s another Pulitzer Prize Classic I can boast I’ve read. I was reasonably happy with the story until about half way. Then, when the hero’s fortunes, Wang-Lung, improved, I lost interest. With wealth, his character changed and he started making oddly stupid decisions in his life. My sympathy for him vanished.

Like The Grapes of Wrath, this book piles ‘this-and-that’ misery on depressing misery. To make matters worse, The Good Earth is appallingly sexist, to the point I’m embarrassed to be part of the male species. The story unfolds during the first half of the 20th Century. I enjoy historical fiction, but I’m left wondering how accurate Ms Buck has depicted this slice of China’s history. It doesn’t bear much credence. And instead of ending properly, the story continues into two more books. No thank you, this first was more than enough for me.

Book borrowed from library.

خیلی کتاب تلخی بود برام.
هرچقدر به صفحات پایانی می‌رسیدم تلختر میشد،اما خیلی دوستش داشتم داستان آروم و ملایم پیش می‌رفت.
اولین تجربه ی خواندنی ام از این نویسنده بود و خیلی لذت بردم.
حیفه که‌ تجدید چاپ نمیکنن من از فیدیبو خوندم که خیلی سختم بود.

Firstly, I'm really sorry Kathy!! I know you love this book but I have to be honest.

I hated this book.

I guess I'm just not a fan of reading books where all women are worthless fools and all men are ill tempered perverts. The only character I didn't want to throttle was O'lan who had a horrible life and was treated terribly. *sigh* This book epically bummed me out. I feel gross. I'm really angry with it. I want to throw it away instead of try to trade it on PBS just so I can get some closure on it.

For the birds!

an epic life of a farmer

all good and bad said

many life wisdom from each character